The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, yesterday admitted it "may have been a mistake" not to foresee the sense of public outrage over the nomination of Mr Hugh O'Flaherty as vice-president of the European Investment Bank.
However, she said, if she had the choice again she would make the same decision.
"I believe that I should give somebody a second chance. That is what I was being asked to do. I don't think it would have been fair or reasonable for me, taking into account all the circumstances, to have vetoed that appointment."
Speaking on RTE's News at One, Ms Harney said: "I did not envisage the sense of public outrage. I accept that may have been a mistake.
"But I did consult two of my senior colleagues. Like me at the time, they did not estimate that this would have caused the furore that it has, and the frenzy that it has."
She continued: "I sought to be fair. I knew it wouldn't be popular. I knew it had the capacity to be misunderstood. I did not realise it would be misunderstood to such an extent, as if I was bought off or something. That is not the case."
During the life of the Government, she said, she had vetoed the appointment of certain people for particular jobs because she felt they were not appropriate candidates.
"This did not fall into that category. Mr O'Flaherty was not involved in bribery or corruption or a scandal. I made a political judgment. I accept it is not a popular one."
She said she identified with those who sympathised with the family of Mrs Anne Ryan, who was killed by Mr Philip Sheedy's drunk-driving. But she stressed: "Mr O'Flaherty wasn't driving the car. Philip Sheedy got his sentence and he served out his sentence and he got a long one."
It was "outrageous", she added, for commentators such as Fine Gael's Mr Michael Noonan to compare the former Supreme Court judge with Mr Charles Haughey or Mr George Redmond.
On the motivation behind the nomination, she rejected the claim that it might have been to reward Mr O'Flaherty for stepping down last April and defusing a political controversy at the time.
"If there was any deal done I would not participate in such an arrangement or facilitate such an arrangement. I am 100 per cent satisfied that did not happen."
Asked why she did not consult the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, who had made it known in the past 24 hours that he disagreed with the nomination, Ms Harney replied: "Michael McDowell is the legal adviser to the Government and I'm not going to say any more than that on that matter . . . I just don't want to comment on what Michael McDowell's views are. Michael McDowell is the legal adviser to the Government."
She added: "I accept that this decision has not gone down very well. If I wanted to be expedient and political about it, I could have sought to have the decision reversed or run away from it. I don't do those things."
It would have been "dishonourable", she said, to veto the nomination when Mr O'Flaherty had already paid "a very heavy price . . . Anyone that met the O'Flahertys in the last year would know just what a price was paid."
